Butler's Status Is Uncertain

Continued Pain in Left Knee Could Cause Wizards Forward to Sit Out the Next Game

MIAMI, March 12 -- Everything appeared to be right with Caron Butler when he took a pass from DeShawn Stevenson and threw down a vicious one-handed dunk over Alonzo Mourning in the third quarter of the Washington Wizards' 106-104 loss Sunday to the Miami Heat. But lately, that kind of explosive play has been missing from the all-star forward's game.

Butler finished with four points on 2-of-8 shooting, and following the team's workout at American Airlines Arena in Miami on Monday, he said continued pain and discomfort in his left knee could force him to sit out Wednesday's game at Indiana.

"We have until Wednesday and we'll see how it feels," said Butler, who has failed to score at least 10 points only three times all season. "If it doesn't feel any better, I don't want to hurt the team by being out there not right."

Before the all-star break, Butler was averaging a career-high 20.4 points on 47.8 percent shooting and had been the team's most consistent performer. Since the break concluded on Feb. 19, Butler has missed three games with back soreness, been bothered by stiffness in his left knee (the product of a kick to the knee area during last Wednesday's loss at Atlanta) and averaged 13.7 points on 39.4 percent shooting.

Butler's value to the Wizards was made obvious late last season when the team lost five straight games while he was out with a thumb injury on his right (shooting) hand and again after this season's all-star break when the team went 0-3 while he was out with lower back spasms.

Butler said persistent stiffness in the left knee -- the same knee that required arthroscopic surgery in October 2003 and forced him to miss 13 games as a member of the Miami Heat -- has robbed him of quickness and explosiveness and led him to play with uncharacteristic hesitancy.

Unlike the slumps experienced by Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison this season, Butler says his recent rough patch isn't the product of struggling with his shooting touch but purely the result of a beat-up body.

"My game consists of hustle, you know, effort stuff," said Butler, who ranks second in the league in steals (2.14 per game) and is second on the team in rebounding (7.6 per game). "My stuff is in transition, on the offensive glass, defensive glass, pushing the ball, getting to the foul line, you know, just pure hustle stuff and right now, my hustle plays and everything are limited because of my activity. If it doesn't feel better in the real near future, we'll have to sit down until it feels right. You don't want it to linger on, linger on and linger on to the point that it's a problem later and in the playoffs."

Following Wednesday's game at Indiana, the Wizards will get two days off before Saturday's game against the New Orleans Hornets at Verizon Center and then two more days before starting a five-game, seven-day road trip at Portland next Tuesday night.

After that, the games will come at a furious pace. The final 20-game stretch includes six sets of back-to-backs and 12 road games. The Wizards (34-28) lead the Heat (33-29) by one game in the Southeast Division and the Eastern Conference standings have tightened significantly since the all-star break because the Heat, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers have all played well.

Following Monday's workout, Coach Eddie Jordan did not express any alarm over Butler's recent struggles and said he would continue to allow the player he nicknamed "tough juice" to play his way back into a groove.

Jordan did say that he and his coaching staff have noticed that opponents are approaching Butler with extra defensive energy since he earned his first all-star appearance.

"Those guys know, hey, he's an all-star," Jordan said. "People are keying on him. Maybe the defense is a little more since the [all-star] announcement. That's what we're seeing. Guys are taking that challenge, getting into him."

Butler dismissed that notion with the force he normally displays when snatching a rebound away from a bigger opponent.

"Mentally -- I'm just not comfortable," Butler said. "It's not a matter of getting shots or opportunities, you know, I'm a basketball player and I can make it happen. I've been doing this for a couple of years now. Right now, it's just the simple fact that you want to be healthy, and if it ain't right, it ain't right."